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Religion and Racism
By Barry Nirmal
Racism is a
dirty word today. If you call someone a racist, he will take it as an insult.
But if someone is a religious fanatic, and you call him that, he will deny being
a fanatic and proceed to try to defend himself by saying that he is not really
a fanatic but a staunch Muslim or a Staunch Hindu or a staunch Christian. But
the truth of the matter is that anyone who thinks that his religion is superior
to another religion is guilty of prejudice just as a person who thinks that his
race is superior.
In the U.S.
and indeed in the West, many white people consider their race to be superior
even though they may not say so in the public. They justify this erroneous thinking by
rationalizing that the countries that are the most powerful and the richest are
those that have a white majority. But fortunately, the popular media in the
West does not propagate or condone this sort of thinking, and if someone, who
is in a position of authority, says that his race is superior, he will be
reprimanded and scolded by his colleagues as well as by the media.
But the same
sort of situation does not exist when dealing with religion. Just like a man
does not become superior just because he was born in a certain race, a man does
not become superior just because he was born in a certain religion. Most people
belong to a certain religion because they were born in a family that belonged
to that religion. So, why feel proud to belong to a religion that you did not
accept after careful investigation and research?
In fact the
All religions are based on the concept of God. In
fact God is a product of human imagination. Had it not been so, there would not
have been so many different kinds of Gods. We have Allah, the God of the
Muslims. Then we have the Christian God whose son is believed to be Jesus
Christ. Hindus have many Gods though all are considered manifestations of one
true God known as the Ultimate Reality or Brahman. The Jains
and the Buddhists do not even believe in a God and still their claim to be
religious is pretty valid. (2) The Jews believe in one God and they consider
themselves as belonging to the chosen race.
Various
prophets and saints who have founded religions or that have authored major
scriptures have given their own theories in their books, and the faithful are
required to believe in what is written in those scriptures, without question.
Once you start questioning what is written in a holy book of your religion, you
are no longer a faithful and are considered an outcast by those who believe. An
apostate is one who has renounced his religion, and Islam and Judaism have the
concept of death penalty for apostasy but only Islam enforces such a
punishment. In many Islamic countries, even
today the punishment for apostasy is death, which is ridiculous.
Apostasy is
often punished though such a punishment goes against the principle of free will
and freedom of religion which includes the freedom to not believe in any
religion or God. Many religions and some
theocratic states punish apostates. Apostates may be shunned by the members of
their former religious group or subjected to formal or informal punishment. A
Christian church may in certain circumstances excommunicate the apostate, while
some Abrahamic scriptures like those of Judaism and
Islam demand the death penalty for
apostates. The death penalty is still applied by some Muslim states like Iran
and Saudi Arabia, but not in Christianity or Judaism. (1)
To conclude,
it is this author’s belief that those who consider their own religion to be
superior to another religion, should be considered guilty of irrational
thinking and society should treat such persons with the same ridicule as it
treats racists.
Only the
West can take the lead in creating an atmosphere all across the world where
religious fanatics, extremists and fundamentalists are considered perverse,
just as racists are treated. The reason for this is that the West has a long
history of secularism where people of various religious beliefs are considered
equal before the law. Western society also does not suppress religion like
China does.
However the
Western governments must treat religious extremists, fanatics and
fundamentalists as enemies of society. The best way to defeat such enemies of
society is to carry out public education by encouraging writers and public
speakers to preach religious tolerance. Writers who speak the truth and explain
clearly that God is merely a product of human imagination, and who encourage
their readers to question the irrational and false statements written in the
scriptures of various religions should be protected and rewarded. The battle
against religious fanatics and fundamentalists must be fought in the
battlefield of ideas, through essays, articles, books, videos, songs, lyrics, and
movies. This is the best way to defeat these enemies of society.
References
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostasy
(2) What is Religion by Barry Nirmal; http://myads.org/journal/bkn31.shtml
** The End ***
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